Spiritual Daughter of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Faithful to Eternal Rome. Fighting with the spirit of St. Joan of Arc for the True Faith.

Category Archives: Modernism

The Pope is at it again. Once again he insults us for our faithfulness to Catholic truth and tradition. The youth love the Traditional Latin Mass because they are tired of the worthless, Protestant drivel that is spoon fed to the masses at the Novus Ordo.

“I always try to understand what is behind those individuals who are too young to have lived the pre-Conciliar liturgy, and who want it nonetheless. I have at times found myself in front of people who are too rigid, an attitude of rigidity. And I ask myself: how come so much rigidity? You dig, you dig, this rigidity always hides something: insecurity, at times perhaps something else…”

Rigidity in the Faith is a sure sign of Catholicism. Christ said that he would spit the lukewarm out of his mouth.

“Pope Benedict accomplished a just and magnanimous gesture [translator’s note: the motu proprio ‘Summorum Pontificum’] to reach out to a certain mindset of some groups and persons who felt nostalgia and were distancing themselves. But it is an exception. That is why one speaks of an ‘extraordinary’ rite. The ordinary in the Church is not this. It is necessary to approach with magnanimity those attached to a certain form of prayer. But the ordinary is not this. Vatican II and Sacrosanctum Concilium must go on as they are. To speak of a ‘reform of the reform’ is an error.”

THE Mass is not an extraordinary occurrence. It’s the reason for the world’s existence. It’s the re-presentation of the greatest act of history, Christ’s death on the cross to redeem us. I despise this scornful attitude towards Catholics. What they do to us they do to the Catholics and Saints of the past 2,000 years, before the Church was corrupted by those trying to change Her for their wicked designs.

We want Truth. Goodness. Beauty. Faithfulness. Authenticity.

We’re working out our salvation in fear and trembling.

Now that’s rigid.

~Damsel of the Faith

As I read these unfortunate words from the Holy Father, I cannot help but think about the experiences I have had as a young person with this mass. Now, I have not attended a New mass in fulfilling the Sundayobligation since 1997, but having a large extended family, I have oftentimes passively attended weddings or funerals for which the New mass is offered.

Just this past week, I passively attended a New mass for the funeral of a relative. Despite the conservative surroundings that can often be present(the young priest, for one, preached an almost unusually conservative sermon compared to many we hear today), the entire atmosphere was strikingly unfulfilling. The wake was quite dreadful, being essentially a “meet and greet” for almost everyone involved. The whole church echoed with excitement as a football stadium would, and several people came to me to exchange jubilant greetings and even start a conversation. Absolutely no one was on their knees with the body of the deceased lying a few feet away. As for the service itself, the priest was again fine and even almost conservative, but everything else was severely lacking in holiness. The “hymns” were a catastrophe, with the equivalent of a young “country star” singing “Bible” music off-tune. Every single person received what is putatively Our Lord in the hand and many particularly enjoyed the “Sign of Peace” and raising their arms up during the prayers.

I have been to New masses both more conservative and more “open” than this, but the reaction from myself and my siblings is largely the same. This mass does not lift up our minds and hearts as the Mass should, but leaves us strangely bored and unfulfilled. Even if Our Lord may be present in correctly said New masses, the entire service is simply bland and protestantized. There is no life to it. It is easy to see how young people can so often leave or reject something so bland, ambiguous, lifeless. Young people, and really all people want truth, beauty, life! And this is the norm for Pope Francis.

Nonetheless, we must pray for the Pope. It is curious to hear him utter such words about the Traditional Mass, and then oftentimes show seemingly honest goodwill towards many affiliated with the fight for Tradition(Fr. Gruner, conservative and traditional journalists and writers, the Society of St. Pius X, etc.). Does this Pope have a special “sympathetic” side when it comes to reaching out to those in the “peripheries”, even to the point where it contradicts his own principles? God may only know. The Modernist mind is a very confused one indeed. Hopefully the recent appeals from the more orthodox bishops and cardinals will help the Pope see the errors of his statements, although he has not responded as of yet. Pray much for the Holy Father!

“I don’t like going into the parishes and celebrating Mass on a false altar: all Churches must have altars facing towards the people.”

Actually, Excellency, your altars can be called false in every sense of the word, since you advocate the desacrilization of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament by relegating it to a simple meal, void of any semblance of the Sacrifice of the Cross. By facing the people you turn your back on God, but you have actually done worse, for the Modernists have thrown the Blessed Sacrament from the altar and cast him into a closet. What does this tell us about you? You do not hold the Catholic Faith.

With the likes of these Modernists, it is a great miracle that the Traditional Latin Mass has survived. Due credit to Archbishop Lefebvre and our great SSPX, for preserving the Faith when it was under most attack.

“The survival of the Tridentine Mass until the post-Vatican II reform was, even from a cultural standpoint, something of a miracle.” ~Michael Davies

“The new liturgy will delight all those groups hovering on the verge of apostasy who, during a spiritual crisis without precedent, now wreak havoc in the Church by poisoning Her organism and by undermining Her unity in doctrine, worship, morals and discipline.” ~Cardinals Ottaviani & Bacci

May God have mercy on this disgraceful Bishop and move him to repentance for his hatred of the Mass of All Time and the True Catholic Faith of saintly generations. Without these Altars, the world would cease to exist.

“They prefer to cohabitate, and this is a challenge, a task. Not to ask ‘why don’t you marry?’ No, to accompany, to wait, and to help them to mature, help fidelity to mature.”

Accompany them to what? When the Church was in a healthy state and Popes taught the Catholic Faith, this would have meant to “accompany” them back to the state of Sanctifying grace, without which there is no life in the soul. How do you “wait” on cohabitators to achieve a supposedly Catholic Marriage without admonishing them and warning them that they are living contrary to the laws of God and are bringing damnation to their souls, telling them that to amend this they must leave their sinful situation? To Pope Francis, cohabitation is the new marriage which ultimately means Marriage is meaningless and basically non-existent. Is cohabitation to be raised to the permanence and holiness of Marriage? Are the pleasures of sin to be raised to the dignity of a Sacrament and upheld as a means to the end of fidelity and holiness? Is Marriage too hard to live by now, with its duties, obligations and responsibilities? What happened to picking up our crosses and following Christ? Why do we have to pander to the pleasures of the people? The Pope, like those disciples of Christ who walked away from Him after He said that we must eat His Body, is ultimately saying concerning marriage, “this saying is hard. Who can accept it?” (John 6: 60). Instead of accepting Christ and His teachings, it seems we have to be accepting of the modern culture that is entrenched in sin, all in the name of a false mercy and pastoral charity.

Fidelity does not exist in sin. Cohabitation is unlawful and a blasphemy to the unity and indissolubility of lawful marriage based on fidelity to Christ and His Church. If there is no fidelity to God by keeping His Commandments, there can be no fidelity to each other. A lawful Marriage is a lifelong covenant and vow made before God by a man and woman. Anything else is a mortal sin and to see the Pope approving of mortal sin (of course this isn’t the first time) is a shameful disgrace.

Why don’t we take a refresher course? The definition and meaning of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony from The Baltimore Catechism #3:

Q. 1005. What is the Sacrament of Matrimony?

A. The Sacrament of Matrimony is the Sacrament which unites a Christian man and woman in lawful marriage.

Q. 1006. When are persons lawfully married?

A. Persons are lawfully married when they comply with all the laws of God and of the Church relating to marriage. To marry unlawfully is a mortal sin, and it deprives the souls of the grace of the Sacrament.

Q. 1007. When was marriage first instituted?

A. Marriage was first instituted in the Garden of Eden, when God created Adam and Eve and made them husband and wife, but it was not then a Sacrament, for their union did not confer any special grace.

Q. 1008. When was the contract of marriage raised to the dignity of a Sacrament?

A. The exact time at which the contract of marriages was raised to the dignity of a Sacrament is not known, but the fact that it was thus raised is certain from passages in the New Testament and from the constant teaching of the Church ever since the time of the apostles. Our Lord did not merely add grace to the contract, but He made the very contract a Sacrament, so that Christians cannot make this contract without receiving the Sacrament.

Q. 1009. What is the outward sign in the Sacrament of Matrimony, and in what does the whole essence of the marriage contract consist?

A. The outward sign in the Sacrament of matrimony is the mutual consent of the persons, expressed by words or signs in accordance with the laws of the Church. The whole essence of the marriage contract consists in the surrender by the persons of their bodies to each other and in declaring by word or sign that they make this surrender and take each other for husband and wife now and for life.

Q. 1010. What are the chief ends of the Sacrament of Matrimony?

A. The chief ends of the Sacrament of matrimony are:

To enable the husband and wife to aid each other in securing the salvation of their souls;

To propagate or keep up the existence of the human race by bringing children into the world to serve God;

To prevent sins against the holy virtue of purity by faithfully obeying the laws of the marriage state.

Q. 1011. Can a Christian man and woman be united in lawful marriage in any other way than by the Sacrament of Matrimony?

A. A Christian man and woman cannot be united in lawful marriage in any other way than by the Sacrament of Matrimony, because Christ raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament.

And the true nature of Marriage according to Pope Leo XIII:

“Marriage has God for its Author, and was from the very beginning a kind of foreshadowing of the Incarnation of His Son; and therefore there abides in it a something holy and religious; not extraneous, but innate; not derived from men, but implanted by nature… As, then, marriage is holy by its own power, in its own nature, and of itself, it ought not to be regulated and administered by the will of civil rulers, but by the divine authority of the Church, which alone in sacred matters professes the office of teaching.” ~Pope Leo XIII, “Arcanum”, 1880 A.D.

It’s blasphemy to put the profane on par with the holy.

~Damsel of the Faith

The Knight of Tradition is adding to the post by giving us some important information on the subject of situation ethics, or in other words as I like to call it, the fruit of Modernism:

As Rorate Caeli adequately covered in the linked article above, such a line of thinking has been already indicated in a few of this Pope’s documents, especially in the infamous Amoris Laetitia; the relevant parts of which are restated below:

(Part of 33.) “Yet if this freedom lacks noble goals or personal discipline, it degenerates into an inability to give oneself generously to others. Indeed, in many countries where the number of marriages is decreasing, more and more people are choosing to live alone or simply to spend time together without cohabiting.”

293. The Fathers also considered the specific situation of a merely civil marriage or, with due distinction, even simple cohabitation, noting that “when such unions attain a particular stability, legally recognized, are characterized by deep affection and responsibility for their offspring, and demonstrate an ability to overcome trials, they can provide occasions for pastoral care with a view to the eventual celebration of the sacrament of marriage”.

On the other hand, it is a source of concern that many young people today distrust marriage and live together, putting off indefinitely the commitment of marriage, while yet others break a commitment already made and immediately assume a new one. “As members of the Church, they too need pastoral care that is merciful and helpful”. For the Church’s pastors are not only responsible for promoting Christian marriage, but also the “pastoral discernment of the situations of a great many who no longer live this reality. Entering into pastoral dialogue with these persons is needed to distinguish elements in their lives that can lead to a greater openness to the Gospel of marriage in its fullness”. In this pastoral discernment, there is a need “to identify elements that can foster evangelization and human and spiritual growth”.

294. “The choice of a civil marriage or, in many cases, of simple cohabitation, is often not motivated by prejudice or resistance to a sacramental union, but by cultural or contingent situations”. In such cases, respect also can be shown for those signs of love which in some way reflect God’s own love. We know that there is “a continual increase in the number of those who, after having lived together for a long period, request the celebration of marriage in Church. Simply to live together is often a choice based on a general attitude opposed to anything institutional or definitive; it can also be done while awaiting more security in life (a steady job and steady income). In some countries, de facto unions are very numerous, not only because of a rejection of values concerning the family and matrimony, but primarily because celebrating a marriage is considered too expensive in the social circumstances. As a result, material poverty drives people into de facto unions”. Whatever the case, “all these situations require a constructive response seeking to transform them into opportunities that can lead to the full reality of marriage and family in conformity with the Gospel. These couples need to be welcomed and guided patiently and discreetly”.

What is happening here is the promotion of Situation Ethics. Although Pope Francis might have insisted to some, e.g., the SSPX, that he does not intend to change doctrine, it would seem that the doctrine could be “flexible” in “pastoral” application.

Situation Ethics is the rejection of the universal, binding, immutable norms of morality. There is no such thing as a moral act that is intrinsically evil, there is no rule that admits no exceptions. According to this false approach, the morality of an act ultimately depends not on objective truth, but on the individual’s given situation.

The early advocates of situation ethics (as well as contemporary advocates) rebelled against what they call “legalism,” “rigidity” and certain “fixed rules of morality that can never be violated.” Such an approach, as the 1960s advocates of situation ethics complained, “puts rules over people.”

Dr. Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991), the Anglican clergyman and principal proponent of modern situation ethics (who published the landmark 1966 book Situation Ethics and ended his days as an atheist), insisted that in a given situation, we need not always act according to objective morality, but rather, we “do the loving thing” based on the our given circumstances. The new pastoral approach coming from Francis’ Vatican delivers a new twist to the same error, claiming what is most important is to do the “merciful” thing, in light of the various “concrete circumstances” of the individual.”

“…In keeping with the natural law, man has a right to exercise his sexuality only within lawful marriage, while respecting the limits set by morality. This is why homosexuality contradicts natural and divine law. Unions entered into apart from marriage (cohabitation, adulterous, or even homosexual unions) are a disorder contrary to the requirements of the natural divine law and are therefore a sin; it is impossible to acknowledge therein any moral good whatsoever, even diminished.

Given current errors and civil legislation against the sanctity of marriage and the purity of morals, the natural law allows no exceptions, because God in His infinite wisdom, when He gave His law, foresaw all cases and all circumstances, unlike human legislators. Therefore so-called situation ethics, whereby some propose to adapt the rules of conduct dictated by the natural law to the variable circumstances of different cultures, is inadmissible. The solution to problems of a moral order must not be decided solely by the consciences of the spouses of or their pastors, and the natural law is imposed on conscience as a rule of action.”

As the Catholic liturgy and doctrine were significantly ignored or even rejected to a point by Fathers of the “pastoral” Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis, as a Son of the Council, is taking the next step in putting even basic morality under this “pastoral” treatment. Let us pray to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts for the eventual triumph that is promised by Our Blessed Mother at Fatima!

To hear these words spoken again by a holy Pope, with much more zeal and concern for the salvation of souls in this 21st century, a century full of heresy, apostasy and Modernism that has overrun the Catholic Church, is the hope of every Catholic that truly loves the Church.

“If ever those in charge of the Lord’s vineyard should be concerned about the salvation of souls, they must be so in this age especially. For many ideas aimed at weakening religion arise almost daily. When men are enticed by novelty and led on by an eagerness for alien knowledge, they come together more eagerly for this very purpose and more willingly embrace it. Wherefore, We lament that the destruction of souls is propagated more widely each day.

Accordingly you must work all the harder and exercise diligence and authority to repel this audacity and insanity which stalks even divine and most holy matters. Be confident that you will accomplish this by simplicity of sound doctrine and by the word of God which penetrates more than any two-edged sword. You will easily be able to contain the attack of enemies and blunt their weapons when in all your sermons you preach and present Jesus Christ crucified. By His own laws and institutions He founded and reenforced this holy city which is His Church. To it he entrusted, as it were, the deposit of faith in Him to be preserved piously and without contamination. He wished it to be the bulwark of His teaching and truth against which the gates of hell would never prevail.

We, therefore, the overseers and guardians of this holy city, must preserve the magnificent heritage of Our laws and faith which has been passed down intact to Us; We must transmit it pure and sound to our successors. If We direct all our actions to this norm found in sacred scripture and moreover cling to the footsteps of our ancestors, We will be best equipped to avoid whatever could weaken and destroy the faith of the Christian people and loosen in any way the unity of the Church.”

All religions do not lead to God. God founded only One Church, that leads to His Father, the One True God. The gods of the pagans are devils, as St. Paul says. Peace and justice is not to be found through “dialogue” but through the saving truth of Jesus Christ and His Church. You cannot have peace without these two. You cannot have peace without submitting to the Kingship of Jesus Christ. True peace is to do the will of God, obey His Commandments and practice the virtues. Without the Church, one cannot have true peace. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all of these things will be added unto you. It’s not “Seek first earthly peace and justice and the Kingdom of God is guaranteed to you.”

Remember the words of the Son of God:

“I am the way and the truth and the life.No one comes to the Father except through me.” ~John 14:6

:And he said to them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned.” ~Mark 16:15-16

“Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” ~Matthew 7:21

“If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.” ~John 15:22

“And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” ~Matthew 16:18

Read what the Popes say on Religious Indifferentism:

“Also perverse is the shocking theory that it makes no difference to which religion one belongs, a theory which is greatly at variance even with reason. By means of this theory, those crafty men remove all distinction between virtue and vice, truth and error, honorable and vile action. They pretend that men can gain eternal salvation by the practice of any religion, as if there could ever be any sharing between justice and iniquity, any collaboration between light and darkness, or any agreement between Christ and Belial.” ~Bl. Pope Pius IX, “Qui Pluribus”, 1846 A.D.

“Again, as all who offer themselves are received whatever may be their form of religion, they thereby teach the great error of this age – that a regard for religion should be held as an indifferent matter, and that all religions are alike. This manner of reasoning is calculated to bring about the ruin of all forms of religion, and especially of the Catholic religion, which, as it is the only one that is true, cannot, without great injustice, be regarded as merely equal to other religions.” ~Pope Leo XIII, “Humanum Genus”, 1884 A.D

“To hold, therefore, that there is no difference in matters of religion between forms that are unlike each other, and even contrary to each other, most clearly leads in the end to the rejection of all religion in both theory and practice. And this is the same thing as atheism, however it may differ from it in name. Men who really believe in the existence of God must, in order to be consistent with themselves and to avoid absurd conclusions, understand that differing modes of divine worship involving dissimilarity and conflict even on most important points cannot all be equally probable, equally good, and equally acceptable to God.” ~Pope Leo XIII, “Immortale Dei”

Prophetic words of Pope Pius X, truth indeed:

But stranger still, alarming and saddening at the same time, are the audacity and frivolity of men who call themselves Catholics and dream of re-shaping society under such conditions, and of establishing on earth, over and beyond the pale of the Catholic Church, ‘the reign of love and justice’ with workers coming from everywhere, of all religions and of no religion, with or without beliefs, so long as they forego what might divide them – their religious and philosophical convictions; and so long as they share what unites them – a ‘generous idealism and moral forces, drawn from whence they can’. When we consider the forces, knowledge, and supernatural virtues which were necessary to establish the Christian City, and the sufferings of millions of martyrs, and the light given by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and the self-sacrifice of all the heroes of charity, and a powerful hierarchy ordained in heaven, and the streams of Divine Grace – the whole having been built up, bound together, and impregnated by the life and spirit of Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, the Word made Man – when we think, I say, of all this, it is frightening to behold new apostles eagerly attempting to do better by a common interchange of vague idealism and civic virtues. What are they going to produce? What is to come out of this collaboration? A mere verbal and chimerical construction in which we see, glowing in a jumble, and in seductive confusion, the words Liberty, Justice, Fraternity, Love, Equality, and human exultation, all resting upon an ill-understood human dignity. It will be a tumultuous agitation, sterile for the end proposed, but which will benefit the less Utopian exploiters of the people.” ~Pope St. Pius X, “Notre Charge Apostolique”, 1910 A.D.

The following is Bishop Fellay’s Letter to Friends and Benefactors #85, concerning the Year of Mercy, the Synod on the Family, the Indissolubility of Marriage and the centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. Please read the Bishop’s beautiful words.

During this time of grave apostasy, we must thank God for any Bishop who holds the Holy Catholic Faith and has the courage to speak the truth.

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

With the multiplication of murderous attacks in Europe and Africa, and with the bloody persecution of many Christians in the Middle East, these recent months show us how profoundly troubled the situation of the world is. In the Church, the recent Synod on the Family and the upcoming start of the Holy Year do not fail to cause legitimate worries. Given this confusion, it seemed helpful to us to inform you of our reflections by responding to your queries. We think that this presentation will make it possible to highlight more clearly how we who are devoted to Tradition should react to the problems facing us today.

On September 1st, Pope Francis, on his own initiative, decided to allow all the faithful to make confessions to priests of the Society of St. Pius X during the Holy Year. How do you interpret this gesture? What does it mean for the Society?

We were in fact surprised by this action of the Holy Father on the occasion of the Holy Year because we, like everyone else, learned about it through the press. How do we understand this gesture? Allow me to make use of an image. When a fire is raging, everyone understands that those who have the means to do so must endeavor to put it out, especially if there is a shortage of firefighters. So it is that through all fifty years of this terrible crisis that has shaken the Church, particularly the tragic lack of confessors, our priests have devoted themselves to the souls of penitents, invoking the case of emergency foreseen by the Code of Canon Law.

As a result of the Pope’s act, during the Holy Year, we will have ordinary jurisdiction. In the image I mentioned, this has the effect of giving us the official insignia of firefighters, whereas such a status was denied us for decades. In itself, it adds nothing new for the Society, its members, or its faithful. Yet this ordinary jurisdiction will perhaps reassure people who are uneasy or others who until now did not dare to approach us. For, as we said in the communiqué thanking the Pope, the priests of the Society wish for one thing only: “To perform with renewed generosity their ministry in the confessional, following the example of untiring devotion that the saintly Curé of Ars gave to all priests.”

On the occasion of the Synod on the Family, you sent a petition to the Holy Father, then a declaration. Why?

The purpose of our petition was to point out as clearly as possible to the Supreme Pontiff the seriousness of the present hour and the decisive impact of his ruling in moral matters of such importance. Pope Francis learned of our sentiments on September 18th, before his departure for Cuba and the United States, and he informed us that he would change nothing of the Catholic doctrine concerning marriage, particularly its indissolubility. But we feared that, in practice, the indissoluble character of the matrimonial bond would be disregarded. And this is in fact what happened, on the one hand with themotu proprio reforming the procedure for declaring the

nullity of marriages, and on the other hand with the final document of this Synod. Hence my declaration intending to recall to mind the constant teaching of the Church on a multitude of points that were discussed and sometimes called into question during the month of October. I will not conceal from you the fact that to me the sorry spectacle that the Synod presented seems particularly shameful and scandalous on more than one count.

Shameful and scandalous how?

Well, for example this dichotomy between doctrine and morality, between teaching the truth and tolerating sin and the most immoral situations. We understand that one should be patient and merciful with sinners, but how will they convert if their sinful situation is not denounced, if they no longer hear anyone talking about the state of grace and its opposite: the state of mortal sin, which inflicts death on souls and consigns them to the torments of hell? If someone were to measure the infinite offense caused by the slightest mortal sin against God’s honor and sanctity, he would die of astonishment. The Church must firmly condemn all the sins, vices, and errors that corrupt the truth of the Gospel. She must not compromise with scandalous behaviors or acknowledge a culpable acceptance of them or the public sinners who attack the sanctity of marriage. Why does the Church no longer have the courage to speak this way?

Yet there were some positive initiatives on the occasion of this Synod, such as the book by eleven cardinals (following one by five cardinals last year); and also the volume by the African prelates; one by Catholic lawyers; the handbook by three bishops, etc.

These fortunate initiatives that appeared recently promoting the defense of marriage and the Christian family give us a glimmer of hope. This represents a salutary reaction, even if certain responses leave something to be desired. Let us hope that this may be the beginning of an awakening throughout the Church that will lead to a rectification and real conversion.

Last spring, in a sermon given at the church of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet in Paris, Bishop de Galarreta said that the Church seemed to be in the process of producing “antibodies” to fight the aberrant proposals being made by progressives on the subject of marriage, who align themselves with current customs instead of seeking to amend them according to Gospel teaching. This reaction on the moral level is beneficial. And since morality is closely connected to doctrine, this could be the start of a return of the Church to her Tradition. We pray for this every day!

In the name of mercy, some prelates, like Cardinal Kasper, are trying, if not to change the doctrine of the Church about the indissolubility of marriage, at least to relax the discipline on communion for divorced-and-remarried persons, or to modify its judgment on unnatural unions. What should we think about all these so-called pastoral exceptions?

The Church can legislate, that is, establish its own laws, which are simply clarifications of the divine law. But in the area of marriage being debated today, Our Lord has already settled the question quite clearly: “What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder” (Matt. 19:6),

and immediately afterward: “Whosoever shall put away his wife…committeth adultery” (Matt. 19:9). Therefore the Church has only one thing to do: tell the faithful of the divine law and enshrine it in ecclesiastical laws. In no case can the Church diverge in any way from it; that would be to fail in its mission, which is to hand on the revealed deposit of faith. In plain language, in the matter under consideration, the Church can only declare that there was no marriage to begin with, but in no case can it annul or dissolve a marriage that is valid in itself.

Of course ecclesiastical laws can add conditions necessary for the validity of a marriage, but always in keeping with the divine law. The Church thus can declare a marriage invalid due to lack of canonical form, but it will never be above the divine law to which it is subject. What is more, it is necessary to state that unlike human and ecclesiastical law, divine law allows for no exceptions, because it is not made by human beings who cannot foresee all possible cases and are obliged to allow room for exceptions. The infinitely wise God has foreseen all possible situations, as I wrote in the petition to the Pope: “the law of God, expression of his eternal love for mankind, is in itself the supreme mercy for all periods of history, all persons, and all situations.”

Is not the September 8 motu proprio that simplifies the procedure for declarations of nullity of marriage a way of recalling the principle of the indissolubility of marriage, while offering easy canonical terms for evading it?

The new motu proprio regulating canonical arrangements dealing with annulment processes claims, of course, to be an answer to a serious contemporary problem: that of numerous broken families. If you want to examine these cases in order to propose a swifter solution, insofar as it corresponds to the divine law on marriage, very good! But in the present context, that of modern secularized and hedonistic society, and of ecclesiastical tribunals already doing what is forbidden, this motu proprio runs the risk of becoming a legal ratification of the disorder. The result could be much worse than the recommended remedy. I very much fear that one of the key points of the Synod may have been resolved by creating a “back door” that opens the way to a supposed “Catholic divorce,” because concretely the Church is exposing itself to many abuses, especially in countries where the bishops, won over to progressivism and subjectivism, exercise precious little supervision…

In the Holy Year to begin on December 8th, is not a mercy without repentance or conversion being touted?

It is true that, in the current climate, an appeal to mercy too easily neglects the indispensable act of conversion, which requires contrition for one’s sins and a horror of sin as an offense against God. Thus I deplored in the lastLetter to Friends and Benefactors (#84) the Honduran Cardinal Maradiaga’s complacent support of a new spirituality whose notion of mercy does not require repentance.

Nevertheless, if you read carefully the various documents published on the subject of the Holy Year, particularly the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee, you see that the fundamental idea of conversion and contrition for sins in order to obtain forgiveness is present. Despite the reference to an ambiguous mercy that is said to consist of restoring to a human being his “incomparable dignity” rather than the state of grace, the Pope means to promote the return of those who have left the Church, and he multiplies the concrete initiatives to facilitate recourse to the sacrament of penance. Unfortunately, he does not ask himself why so many people have left the Church and stopped practicing their faith, and whether there might be some connection to a certain Council, its “cult of man”, and its catastrophic reforms: unbridled ecumenism; a desacralized and protestantized liturgy; a relaxation of morals, etc.

Then can the faithful devoted to Tradition participate without risk of confusion in the Extraordinary Jubilee Year decreed by the Pope? Especially since this Year of Mercy intends to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican II, which is supposed to have knocked down the “walls” in which the Church was enclosed…

Quite obviously there arises the question of our participation in this Holy Year. In order to resolve it, a distinction is necessary between: the circumstances that bring about a Holy Year or Jubilee and its very essence.

The circumstances are historical, connected with the major anniversaries of the life of Jesus, in particular of his redemptive death. Every fifty years, or even every twenty-five years, the Church institutes a Holy Year. This time around, the point of reference for the opening of the Jubilee Year is not just the Redemption — December 8th is necessarily connected to the redemptive work begun with the Immaculate Mother of God — but also the Second Vatican Council. This is most unsettling, and we reject it forcefully, because we cannot rejoice in, but rather must weep over, the ruins caused by this Council: the precipitous drop in vocations, the dramatic decline of religious practice, and above all the loss of faith described by John Paul II himself as a “silent apostasy”.

Nevertheless the essential components of a Holy Year remain: it is a special year in which the Church, upon the decision of the Supreme Pontiff, who holds the power of the keys, opens wide her treasures of graces so as to bring the faithful closer to God, especially by the forgiveness of sins and the remittance of the punishments due to sin. This the Church does in the sacrament of penance and by indulgences. Such graces do not change; they are always the same, and only the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, has power over them. We might also note that the conditions for obtaining the indulgences of the Holy Year are still the same: confession, communion, prayer for the intentions of the Pope — which are objective and traditional, not personal. Nowhere in the reminder of these habitual conditions is there any question of adhering to the conciliar novelties.

When Archbishop Lefebvre, with the whole seminary of Écône, went to Rome during the Holy Year of 1975, it was not to celebrate Council’s tenth anniversary, although Paul VI had mentioned that anniversary in the Bull of Indiction. Rather it was an opportunity to profess our Romanitas, our attachment to the Holy See, to the Pope who, as the successor of Peter, has the power of the keys. Following in the footsteps of our venerable founder, during this Holy Year we will concentrate on the essential components of it: repentance so as to obtain divine mercy through the intermediary of His one Church, despite the circumstances that some have thought necessary to invoke as requirements for celebrating this year, as was the case already in 1975 and again in 2000.

We could compare these two elements, the essential and the circumstances, to the contents and the packaging that surrounds them. It would be detrimental to reject the graces belonging to a Holy Year just because it is being presented in defective packaging, without considering the fact that this packaging does not alter the contents, unless the circumstances were to absorb the essentials, and unless, in the present case, the Church no longer had at her disposal the graces proper to the Holy Year because of the damage done by Vatican II. But the Church was not born fifty years ago! And, through the grace of Christ who is “the same yesterday, today and for ever,” (Heb. 13:8) it remains and will remain the same, despite a Council open to a world of perpetual change…

In several recent statements you seem to want to anticipate the one hundredth anniversary of Fatima by inviting the faithful to start preparing now. Why?

From the perspective mentioned in this letter and in order to insist on the urgency of conversion, we thought of connecting these corporal and spiritual works of mercy that we are invited to perform this year with the centenary of the apparitions in Fatima, in which Our Lady insisted so much on the necessity of conversion, of oneself and of the world, on the necessity for works of penance and on prayer, especially the Rosary. Imploring divine mercy is closely connected with the Fatima apparitions: the Blessed Virgin invited us to pray and do penance, and this is how we will obtain mercy, not otherwise. It seems to me quite beneficial to tie these two future anniversaries together this way by making them two years of efforts to draw closer both to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary and to Our Lord, both to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to the merciful Sacred Heart.

The Society of St. Pius X will organize an international pilgrimage to Fatima from August 21st to 23rd, 2017. But already we can and even must prepare ourselves, especially when Catholic morality is seriously being challenged.

More than ever, on this feast day of November 21st, which for us is a major anniversary of the Declaration by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1974—a veritable charter for our battle for the Church of all ages—let us maintain a Catholic attitude in all circumstances, whatever the difficulties and trials may be. Let us have the mind of the Church, let us be faithful to Our Lord, let us remain devoted to his Holy Sacrifice, to his teachings, to his examples. Yesterday I read that Cardinal Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, feared a “protestantization of the Church”. He is right. But what is the new Mass, if not a protestantization of the Mass of all time? And what are we to think about the Pope who, like his predecessors, goes to a Lutheran church? When we see how the five hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017 is being prepared, how the figure of Luther is now saluted, although he was one of the major heresiarchs and schismatics in history, ferociously opposed to the Roman Catholic Church, it is enough to make you lose heart! Truly, Archbishop Lefebvre saw correctly when he said that “the only attitude of fidelity to the Church and to Catholic doctrine, for our salvation, is the categorical refusal to accept the Reformation,” because between Luther’s reform and the one undertaken by Vatican II there is more than one point in common. And with him, we say again that, “without any rebellion, bitterness, or resentment, we pursue our work of priestly formation under the guidance of the never-changing Magisterium, convinced as we are that we cannot possibly render a greater service to the Holy Catholic Church, to the Sovereign Pontiff, and to posterity.”

You understand this very well, dear friends and benefactors of the Society of St. Pius X. Your fervent prayers, your admirable generosity, and your constant devotion are for us an invaluable support. Thanks to you, the work of Archbishop Lefebvre is developing everywhere. With all my heart I thank you for this.

We pray to Our Lady to obtain for you all the graces that you need. We ask the Good Lord to grant you His blessings for you and your families, so that you may prepare for the great feast of Christmas by a holy Advent, and that you may entrust the coming year, with its joys and crosses, to our Mother in Heaven.

On the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, November 21, 2015
+ Bernard Fellay

Why is there a crisis in the Church? How will it be resolved? Ultimately, the root of this crisis in the Church is the deadly sin of pride, the first sin of the human race and of Satan. “We would rather serve man and not God. We do not want the hard religion, the religion of penance and sacrifice which is the ladder to Heaven. We do not want to be like little children and allow ourselves to be fed and taught. We want to be comfortable and do things the easy way because all that matters is life in this world.” No longer do the Churchmen want Christ the King to rule over all peoples and Nations. No longer is Evangelization of the utmost importance. The very mission of the Church is undermined and attacked, especially by the current Vicar of Christ, who considers doctrine and proselytism to be useless and even nonsense.

In the infamous interview to the atheist Eugenio Scafari, the Pope said:

“Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us. Sometimes after a meeting I want to arrange another one because new ideas are born and I discover new needs. This is important: to get to know people, listen, expand the circle of ideas. The world is crisscrossed by roads that come closer together and move apart, but the important thing is that they lead towards the Good.”

Nowhere does the Pope talk about the salvific role of the Catholic Church. Why are we even Catholic if there is nothing special about the Church, if the Church is just a NGO that the Pope hypocritically condemns yet advocates for when he speaks about people’s happiness in this world, even going so far as to write a Papal Encyclical on the Earth and the Environment? Truly, the Pope is a product of the Counciliar Revolution. The whole of the Counciliar Revolution is embodied in the man. Books could be written about the errors that this Pope has advocated publicly to the scandal of the Faithful and the detriment of souls. One shudders to wonder what his Successor will be like.

This is plain Protestantism. The Church does not have the power to change or alter the truth divinely revealed for our salvation. Our practices are based on our beliefs. If we throw out our beliefs, the religion comes crashing down, the Catholic Church simply would not exist. Fortunately, we have the promise of Our Lord that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. He never said they wouldn’t come close to it, though. Thankfully, we know the Pope has no power to change doctrine, no matter what he says. Someone should place before the Pope the doctrines and dogmas of the Church and ask him if he believes them. This is the man who is supposed to guard and protect the deposit of faith, not undermine and attack it. As I’ve said before, even the immoral, thieving, corrupt Popes of the Middle Ages did not attack the Faith, the doctrines, the traditions, her very soul.

From all appearances, the Pope, sad to say, wants an easy religion where everyone gets along, nobody’s feelings are hurt by the hard truth and everyone takes care of the environment rather than their immortal souls. No longer can this be denied. Facts are clear as day. The Pope would rather work towards a naturalist utopia, whose foundations would be the uniting of all religions in a false unity, thereby undermining the teaching that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. The Faith is an intellectual assent to revealed truth, not a sentimental assent to one’s personal feelings and whims. These matters are serious, thereby placing souls in jeopardy who are ignorantly led astray by this lying novelty.

What must be do in the face of this adversity? Make our voices known and fight for our Faith until, please God, he shows us what we must do. Sitting on the fence is simply not an option. You must do whatever part you can to defend the honor of Our Lord’s Church against those who would attack Her very mission. To refuse to do so is to abandon Our Lord’s Church at Her Passion, just as all but a few abandoned Our Lord at the foot of the cross. The Church will only be restored through the Counter Revolution, the Traditional Catholic Movement, the only Catholics that are keeping the Faith of our Forefathers, in the face of abuse and persecution from the Counciliar Church. I believe that the restoration of the Church and Christendom will occur at the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which will usher in the promised era of peace. But, we can’t stand around, do nothing and wait. We are the Church Militant. Our duty is to fight by virtue of our Confirmation, where we became Soldiers of Jesus Christ. Our Lady of LaSalette spoke to us all in these words. May the restoration come soon for the sake of the elect.

“I make an urgent appeal to the earth. I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven; I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Saviour of men; I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in my arms, so to speak, those who have lived on my spirit. Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world. It is time they came out and filled the world with light. Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children. I am at your side and within you, provided that your faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days. May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honour of Jesus Christ. Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see. For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends.” ~Our Lady of LaSalette

Fight worthily or die trying. We will be victorious because we have the Mother of God at our side, the Saints of history trumpeting us on and the unchangeable Mass as our fortress, our consolation and our hope. Our Lord never changes and neither does His Bride, the Church, bulwark of the truth.

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Christ the King

Immaculate Heart of Mary

She who asked that we make the First Saturdays in reparation for the many outrages and sacrileges She receives.

Pope St. Pius X

Ora pro nobis! For the "restoration of all things in Christ."

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre

Great Defender of the Rights of God and His Holy Church.

Bishop Bernard Fellay

Long live His Excellency, the very wise and courageous leader of the SSPX!

Bishop Tissier de Mallerias

"Their new religion is against the true Mass, and the true Mass destroys their new false religion, a religion without sacrifice, expiation, satisfaction, divine justice, penance, self-denial, asceticism; the religion of the so called “love, love, love” that is nothing but words."

Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta

"No salvation, no redemption is possible, neither for individuals nor for societies, apart from the priesthood and apart from the kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ."

St. Joan of Arc

Following in the footsteps of St. Joan of Arc. Fighting a spiritual battle for the True Church. *Raises sword*

Fr. Nicholas Gruner

RIP - An Apostle of the Latter Days - Valiant Defender of Our Lady of Fatima

Fighting for the Church

Viva Christo Rey! Rise up, knights!

Sts. Joan & Therese

Daughters of the King of Heaven

St. Peter

Tu es Petrus.

Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Traditional Latin Mass - Heaven on Earth - Mass of the Saints. The Mass Archbishop Lefebvre lived and died for.

Our Lady of Good Success

Pray for the Church attacked by Freemasonry. She who will usher us in to the great restoration of the Church.

Our Lady of LaSalette

She who wept over the sins of the world and called upon the apostles of the Last Days to fight.

Our Lady of Fatima

Pray that the Pope and Bishops will obey the Mother of God and consecrate Russia. Her Immaculate Heart will triumph.

Our Lady of America

True but abandoned Apparition of Our Lady. Only Apparition with a counterfeit.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Protect the unborn from being slaughtered by abortion.

St. Raphael the Archangel

Patron of Holy Matrimony and Youth.

St. Joseph

Protector of the Holy Catholic Church and the Family.

St. Michael the Archangel

Defender of the Church Militant.

St. Tarcisius

Defender of the Blessed Sacrament, who died rather than allow anyone to touch the Sacred Host.

Pope Leo XIII

He who fought Freemasonry and saw that the devil would persecute the Church for 100 years.

Pope Pius XII

"It is an error to believe that Christ did not teach a determined body of doctrine applicable to all times and to all men, but rather that He inaugurated a religious movement adapted, or to be adapted, to different times and different places."

Pope St. Pius V

"All the the evils of the world are due to lukewarm Catholics."

St. John Bosco

"Your sons ask for the bread of Faith and no one gives it to them. Ungrateful Rome, effeminate Rome, arrogant Rome. Forgetting that the Sovereign Pontiffs and your true glory are on Golgotha. Woe to you; my law is an idle word for you."

St. Dominic Savio

"Death but not sin."

The Altar of God amidst the destruction

Introibi ad altare Dei. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.

Successors of the Apostles

Our Bishops - Passing on the True Faith they have received.

St. John Vianney

"Oh, how great is a priest! The priest will not understand the greatness of his office till he is in Heaven. If he understood it on earth, he would die, not of fear, but of love."

St. Therese of Lisieux

"I will let down a shower of roses." My Patroness. The Little Flower of Our Lord.

Most Holy Eucharist

"He is The Bread sown in the virgin, leavened in the Flesh, molded in His Passion, baked in the furnace of the Sepulchre, placed in the Churches, and set upon the Altars, which daily supplies Heavenly Food to the faithful." ~St. Peter Chrysologus

Crucifixion of Our Lord

"Men speak today of 'liberation.' Everywhere they have this word so much on their lips: liberation, liberation, liberation! What liberation? Liberation from Our Lord Jesus Christ! They want no more of Our Lord Jesus Christ; they want no more of His Cross! They want no more of His sacrifice because His sacrifice reminds us that we must sacrifice ourselves, that we must die to our sins to have life. And that, men who seek rather their pleasure and their satisfaction can neither see nor hear nor understand. They want nothing to do with the Cross. And that is why so many crosses have disappeared in our day." ~Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre

Cardinal Giuseppe Siri

"If the Church were not divine, the Council would have buried Her."

The Holy Catholic Church

"For nothing more glorious, nothing nobler, nothing surely more honorable can be imagined than to belong to the One, Holy Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church, in which we become members of one Body as venerable as it is unique; are guided by one supreme Head; are filled with one divine Spirit; are nourished during our earthly exile by one doctrine and one heavenly Bread, until at last we enter into the one, unending blessedness of heaven." ~Pope Pius XII